Col. (on a Guatemalan birth certificate)

22:22 Dec 15, 2016 

I graduated as an architect in July 1981. The following week, I had to have my diploma certified as authentic by some government entity that certified that it was legit, signed by the right people. Then, I had to register in BOTH the Colegio de Arquitectos AND the Colegio de Ingenieros. Each gave me a "number". The next day, I had my own firm.
In the US, I had to work for someone else for 3 years, keep track of the types of work I was doing, and then take a 3-day exam. I passed 8 of the 9 parts in 1990. The next year I took the 9th one again and passed, and got my license, good in the State of New York (only). Two very different systems.

21:55 Dec 15, 2016 

And not just in the Spanish-speaking world. The US has a system of medical licensure (by examination); licences to practise medicine are granted by a government agency (at state level, I believe). In the UK, on the other hand, doctors are not "licensed" by a government agency but "registered" by the British Medical Association. If they are deregistered, which is called being "struck off" the register, they cannot legally practise. But although it is not really accurate to call this a "licence" as in the US, it amounts to the same thing in practice.

Venezuela, as you say, is pretty much like the UK in this respect: you are registered with a colegio and there is no government-issued licence (to my knowledge). But if I remember correctly Colombia, Mexico and Argentina, for example, have both government licensing (cédula profesional) and registration (colegiado), and you need both in order to practise. In these cases we need to distinguish the two with different terms. I think it's better, even in countries without government licensing, to use "medical association membership/registration for "colegiado".

20:47 Dec 15, 2016 

Thanks Christian. I did end up going with "medical association membership number."

15:00 Dec 15, 2016 

In Venezuela, after we get our university degree, you do have to certify it as authentic and then register with the relevant "Colegio", which assigns you a number, which is your "license".

01:53 Dec 15, 2016 

Thank you both! That sounds great.

20:31 Dec 14, 2016 

I agree with Charles.

20:23 Dec 14, 2016 

I think it depends on the country. I can't remember the details at the moment but I'm pretty sure that in at least some Latin American countries a doctor, after obtaining the título profesional (degree), has to be licensed by the ministry and also become a member of the relevant colegio. So it's not necessarily the same thing. I would translate it as medical association membership number.

20:19 Dec 14, 2016 

Thank you to everyone for your responses! Researching on Wordreference, I found that "numero de colegiado" (sorry, I don't know how to accents on this computer) could be translated as "license number" (http://forum.wordreference.com/threads/número-de-colegiado-e... I think I will translate it as such unless anyone has other suggestions. Thanks again!

19:33 Dec 14, 2016 

I think so too.

17:37 Dec 14, 2016 

I think it's colegiado. Every doctor has a their own number. In Spain at least.

16:38 Dec 14, 2016 

And 2384 is his/her registration number.